Spectral and transport properties of Ising superconducting systems under in-plane magnetic fields
Ising superconductors provide a platform to study the interplay between singlet and
triplet pairing under strong in-plane magnetic or exchange fields. Their spin-orbit induced
spin-valley locking protects superconductivity far beyond the Pauli limit. This protection leads
to characteristic spectral and transport signatures. This thesis examines a few of them, finite
energy structures in the quasiparticle spectrum, and Andreev bound states and nonreciprocal
current-phase relations in Josephson junctions.
The first part investigates the density of states when both singlet and triplet pairing
channels are present. Earlier work predicted that an in-plane magnetic field generates mirage
gaps at energies set by the Ising spin-orbit coupling. We extend this analysis in the clean
limit with an additional triplet channel. At low magnetic fields, the triplet pairing reduces the
width of the mirage gaps. At high fields, when the temperature is below the triplet critical
temperature, the mirage gaps remain finite because both singlet and triplet order parameters
survive. This behavior contrasts with the purely singlet case, where the mirage gaps vanish
once the singlet order is suppressed. The results offer a possible explanation for the recent
tunneling experiments on NbSe2.
The second part analyzes Andreev bound states and supercurrents in Josephson junctions
based on Ising superconductors. For a transparent nonmagnetic interface, non-parallel in-plane
exchange fields in the superconductors split the Andreev bound states. The current-phase
relation becomes strongly nonsinusoidal. Introducing a second channel, a fully spin-polarized
barrier with low transmission, adds another supercurrent contribution. The interference
between the two channels breaks the antisymmetry of the current-phase relation, which
generates a superconducting diode effect. Its magnitude can be tuned by the orientation of
the exchange fields and by the conductance ratio of the barriers. The effect is robust against
disorder.
Taken together, these results show how Ising spin-orbit coupling and field-induced triplet
correlations shape both the spectroscopic and transport properties of Ising superconductors.
Mirage gaps persist in strong magnetic fields when triplet order remains finite. Mixed
barrier Josephson junctions provide a simple mechanism for nonreciprocal current-phase
relations without external flux. The findings support ongoing experiments in van der Waals
superconductors and offer new possibilities for superconducting devices with directional
transport.